Give a cursory listen to the Hot Club of Detroit’s lively jazz music and you might be whisked
away to a rustic Parisian cafe with an endless stream of lattes and cigarettes at the ready.

Julien Labro would rather leave his work open to wider interpretation.

“I don’t think the band ever makes conscious choices — this is a nightclub in the 1950s or
whatever,” said Labro, 33, the quintet’s accordion player and its only foreigner. “You let the
audience decide.”

And, yet, the ensemble arose from founder and guitarist Evan Perri — who, while studying with
Labro at Wayne State University in Detroit, launched a pursuit in the direct mold of Belgian
guitarist Django Reinhardt.

In 1934, Reinhardt co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France, known for its jangly,
percussion-free “Gypsy jazz” stylings tinged with violin that today remain symbolic of something
you might hear wafting down the Champs-Elysees.

Influential, too, will be the addition of French vocalist Cyrille Aimee (raised in the same town
where Reinhardt died), set to accompany multi-lingual tunes during the band’s Saturday concert in
the Lincoln Theatre.

Helping distinguish the musicians is their latest album, the 2012 release
Junction, which features more original works.

“We just try to be ourselves,” Labro said.

The melange of styles and sounds mirrors his musical trajectory.

After seeing the accordion played on television, Labro began studying the instrument at age 9 —
mostly in the form of classical music translated from piano fare.

In that mold, “Every dynamic, every phrasing, every little micro-note has to be executed to
perfection.”

Jazz entered the equation during his teenage years. Labro would save his money to frequent a
record store, scooping up “as much as I could” by artists ranging from John Coltrane to Chick
Corea.

“Listening to these guys, you could sense freedom of expression,” he said.

Hoping to emulate his idols, an 18-year-old Labro moved to Detroit for his undergraduate studies
in music, followed by master’s degrees in jazz studies and composition.

At first, the change of scenery was daunting for a transplant from southern France: “I had never
seen snow.”

And coming to a region blighted by decades of industrial decline was also a shock. Many
Europeans, Labro said, assume the whole country is living the American dream.

Still, he added, “The culture that surrounds the city, the music and intensity — the scene is
very powerful.”

Labro and Perri’s collaboration grew and expanded. In 2006, the band was the first Motor City
act to sign with Detroit jazz label Mack Avenue Records.

Although the band’s style is frequently dubbed as such, Labro dismissed the Gypsy-jazz label,
which he finds inaccurate and even belittling.

“(Reinhardt) was a Gypsy of ethnicity, but he was really a jazz player,” he said. “None of us
are Gypsies.”

A constant, meanwhile, is the absence of a drummer. That role is filled by one of the group’s
two guitarists.

Mimicking high-hat and snare beats is “pretty exhausting,” Labro said. “On top of that, he’s
making changes — giving you the harmony and rhythm. It leaves the floor pretty open.”

As a unit, the players pluck and hum along like a chugging locomotive, guided in part by songs
and chord structures dating back decades.

They’re also sustained by the comments of recent years. Hot Club of Detroit listeners have told
the band that they evoke neither Reinhardt nor other hot-club ensembles but instead their distinct
style.

“A good musician has to be well-rounded,” Labro said. “We’ve changed and evolved. I think that’s
been challenging but also very rewarding.”